The Problem Isn’t Palin. It’s McCain
An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 60% of American voters say John McCain is wasting his time trying to inform them about the relationship between Barack Obama and former domestic terrorist turned ‘peaceful’ radical William Ayers.
Meanwhile, 52% of likely voters said McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin, made them think less highly of McCain’s judgment, thereby signalling that they believe that Palin is not ready to be vice president.
The interpretation of most pundits, then, immediately was that Palin was pushing McCain’s national poll numbers down.
Not so far, say conservative bloggers Jim Geraghty and Allahpundit. Wasn’t it McCain’s job to appeal to independent and moderate voters? Weren’t they supposed to be his ‘base?’ Palin was chosen because she should have been able to rally the base, to make sure that the grassroots were out and active, and that the conservative base would show up on election day to vote for the Republican nominee, Senator McCain.
Geraghty and Allahpundit are to a very large degree correct. McCain should not have needed any help getting moderates and independents to support him. Courting them was his job, not that of his running mate, whomever his running mate would be.
Polls show, however, that McCain is increasingly losing ground among such voters, making clear that he is losing the battle he should have fought and won. Palin, meanwhile, remains highly popular among the social conservative base, mind you not the intellectual conservative base, who juggle one, sometimes two jobs and raising children with values their parents and grandparents held in an continuous changing, globalizing and by popular culture influenced world.
They are, of course, to a very large degree correct. It was not Palin’s job to court moderate and independent voters. McCain should have done that. Palin should have gone out, rally the social conservative base, and take some swipes at Obama.
However, McCain’s choice was a mistake nonetheless. Albeit not for the reason members of the ‘elite media’ seem to think: it’s not that she does not appeal to moderate voters that is the problem, it is that McCain should have picked someone with executive experience (which Palin has of course, go on reading) and with knowledge of the economy.
This is where McCain truly went wrong. Voters believe that Obama is better able to deal with the economy. In times of economic crisis, this is the one issue that counts. Foreign policy does not, rallying the base does not; it’s all about the economy.
McCain does not know much about the economy, as he once admitted himself, so he should have picked a running mate who would have made up for his lack of expertise. Many high profile Republicans understand how the economy works, and are able to promote and defend conservative economic policies.
So, in a way, both are right: conservative bloggers who claim that McCain not Palin is the problem, and journalists who claim that McCain would have been far better off if he would have chosen someone else for running mate.
Amen… what ever happened to Romney?
The Palins are one step away from being felons troopergate, tax evasion, shooting wovles illegally, lawsuits against her for using her Yahoo account for Gov Business, refusing to release her medical records like all the other candidates and lord knows what else. The worst VP Pick ever. This is how John McCain will be remembered.
Good point, whynot. Americans should be a lot more worried about a candidate who has abused her office and repeatedly flouted the law than a guy who attended some board meetings with a reformed terrorist who now threatens no one.
McCain could have picked Kay Bailey Hutchinson if he wanted a female on the ticket- at least we would know that she was familiar with Supreme Court decisions, and could name a publication that she reads regularly.
The two biggest errors that McCain made were picking Palin and deciding to make the Ayers relationship the central issue of his campaign. People really don’t care that much and there is at least as much concern with McCain’s role in the Keating Five.
This is how John McCain will be remembered At least by whynot. PS Shooting wolves? Felons? Gosh
McCain should have picked someone with economic knowledge, true, however, they should have also had knowledge of foreign and domestic affairs and a more then passing interest in the world around them.
I don’t care how much Couric annoyed Palin, she should have been able to answer something as basic as “what newspapers/magazines, etc., do you read?”
not for nothing but the airborne wolf shoots were legal and not unprecedented
condomimi – you’ve got to be kidding me! LOL!
The charge that she abused her office was made by one man, and if you read the evidence presented in his report the only conclusion you can come to is that he was wrong. Her record of government reform in Alaska shows that she is infinitely more qualified than Obama – who has never in his life held a position of responsibility. Why are you people so afraid of her ideas and values that you don’t even address her record?
It’s not quite fair to say this is McCain’s fault. McCain won the Republican primary essentially because he was the only Republican with a remote chance of winning the general election. Many knew this, but to seal the deal he had to move to the right to gain enough primary votes. But the majority of American voters are not Republican primary voters. And the public has little patience for the conservative base these days. These are the people that pushed to get Bush into the White House after all. So by doing something to appeal to the consevative base of the party (whom he needs to show up at the polls to win), McCain needed a VP choice to energize them. Given the political climate and America’s judgement of the conservative politics as of late, this is a move that would surely turn off independents in the long run. The party has put him in a lose-lose situation.
In the end, McCain is the leader of his campaign. He makes the big decisions. This is a decision he was wrong on. Perhaps Palin would be better to know more about national issues, and maybe she should have thought more on the invitation, but she didn’t force McCain to choose her.
He did that, not her.
How can it be said that Obama knows more about the economy than McCain? Raise taxes in the worst recession since the 30’s? Spread the wealth around? Gimme a break! McCain is a poor communicator and Obama is a consumate BS artist. That’s all there is to it.
Kevin: You’ve got to be kidding me! Did you read the Troopergate report. Also, “infinitely more qualified than Obama”? You’ve got to be kidding me. His top notch education alone makes him more highly qualified than she is. I live Alaska. I actually went to school with and know Sarah and her entire family. While I like her and think her family is a very nice one, she is in no way qualified to be in the position she is in.
obama can only TALK !!so much for harvard …anybody from harvard can breeze through talking…absolutely no experience to lead a nation like OURS!! .Mccain has a wealth of experience and has been in politics for yonks !! definitely the better one …to whom I would trust governance of AMERICA…. and with all obama s connections and his dubious middle name…. makes one wonder whether under him the gates of ”liberalism” may open so wide to allow an influx of more types of husseins in different forms !!! leading to ???? threat to national security …BIG TIME …. heavy price to pay unless america wakes up early to avert a disaster…
why compare obama to palin ….she is NOT running for presidency now !!
When the obits of this campaign are written, McCain’s choice of Palin will be identified aas the overriding reason why he lost. She completely undercut his best argument against Obama – his experience. It isn’t that I believe she is some kind of nut. Anyone who moves from city council member of a very small city to governor in 10 years has got some chops. But she just isn’t qualified – right now – to serve in the position.
The Bridge to Nowhere flipflop, the awful Gibson and Couric interviews, and most of all the ludicrous “I have foreign policy expertise because I can see Russia” statement show that.
She needs time to develop her vision for what will fix this country’s ills. Ronald Reagan – no matter what you think of his policies – had a vision of where he wanted to take this country. And he succeeded in moving it a large part of the way to where he wanted it to go. HE HAD A VISION. Palin needs to develop on too. Go back to Alaska, consider the issues, and reenter the fray in 4 – or more likely 8 – years.
kevin- the investigator for the Alaskan ethics committee concluded that Palin abused her office —its all in the report’s conclusions. She should not have allowed her husband to pressure state officials to fire her brother-in-law. That may not be a criminal offense- but it is at least a violation of Alaska’s ethics regulations.
What’s blatantly obvious is that Palin’s detractors lap up the media and Obama campaign spin on her that have cast her in the most negative light possible, and ignore any of her positive attributes. Whynot lists a bunch of claims that are complete nonsense (‘one step away from felons…excuse me? That would mean they’d been convicted of misdemeanors, so what convictions are you referring to?; here are the facts about the wolf population control program; and that email account controversy? Being sued doesn’t mean that she did anything wrong, and if she isn’t being as transparent with her communications in office as you’d like her to be then how in the heck can you get worked up over it when Obama scrubbed EVERY SINGLE RECORD OF HIS COMMUNICATIONS during his tenure in the Illinois state senate?)And Kim, you’re better than this, to jump on the smear bandwagon. If you oppose Palin’s policies or feel she’s too inexperienced, just say so- no need to hit the panic button when your guy is ahead by double digits anyway. And if you’re so concerned about a MINOR ethics violation by Palin, then how can you possibly feel that Kay Bailey Hutchinson would be a better choice when she was indicted during the 90s for campaign misconduct and there’s some suggestion that she tampered with evidence which resulted in the case against her being dropped. So, is it really ethics that concerns you about Palin, or do you simply reject any prolife female candidate and prefer to substitute a prochoice one?